Brussels, 11/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - During a public hearing organised on Wednesday afternoon by the parliamentary budgets committee, Portugal made it known that it was requesting aid of EUR 48.5 million from the European Solidarity Fund, compared to the 31.7 million initially proposed by the European Commission after the fires this summer which devastated over 403,000 hectares of forest on Portuguese territory. The request, which was presented by the Portuguese Secretary of State for...